er have any difficulty in procuring the unlimited funds they
need for the execution of their boundless plans. They will raise the
money by the printing of practically unlimited quantities of paper
money issued against the security of "the ascertained wealth of the
nation." If they wish to spend money, they simply "make it" by means
of an ordinary printing press. Could a simpler and more ingenious
system for making money be devised?

"Recently notice has been given by leading bankers of their intention
to discriminate against municipal loans. And as things now stand, it
is certain that, if an organised effort is made generally by the
bankers throughout the country by advising clients against such
investments and by refusing to accept municipal bonds as collateral
security for overdrafts, &c.--a serious check will be put upon public
enterprise. Those who imagine bankers either impotent or incapable of
such treason against the public interest should remember what took
place in the United States in 1893.

"The natural suggestion to be offered as a counter-move to the threat
of the bankers and their Industrial Freedom League is to add to those
enterprises now under municipal control that of banking. And surely
there is nothing which lends itself more easily to municipalisation!
If the credit of a banking house can be employed for promoting
enterprise and earning dividends, why cannot municipalities employ
their own credit directly? In others words, why cannot the credit of a
city be utilised to carry on its municipal works instead of it having
to borrow the credit of a bank and pay interest charges? Consider how
public works are now financed. The London County Council decides to
build decent and respectable houses in some locality for the working
classes. It requires, we will say, _500,000l._ with which to build
dwellings for 2,000 families. Bankers are invited to tender for the
loan, and finally the Council gets this advance on a guarantee of 3
per cent. per annum, the principal being repayable at the end of
thirty-three and a third years. At the end of this period the Council
will have paid the bank _500,000l._ in interest as well as the
_500,000l._ original loan. The charge for the loan is equal to the
entire cost of the whole undertaking; the result is that each family
must pay about twice the amount of rent that it would otherwise have
to pay if the Council had not incurred interest charges through
borrowing other peo